Tag: fantasy

You must’ve heard of those “100 books to read before you die” lists; well this one is definitely one of them!

A book of its very open kind, it’s not bordered by any genre whatsoever. It is a science fiction, a mystery thriller, a fantasy with science and adventure. And oh yes it has romance too! 😛

Considered one of Murakami’s better works, Kafka on the shore takes the reader on an exhilarating ride in a world of bizarre. With unimaginable events happening things do tend to get a little gory, and gory it does get. But the words don’t​ let the interest deter on bit.

Let me show you what I mean:

Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn.

Why?

Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

But the one major dip in the book is the whopping number of loose ends it gives way to. Too many things are left unanswered, which might make the reader feel unsatisfied even after a read of over 600 pages.

This clash of things good and bad makes one either applaud at how cunning Murakami is as a writer or how selfish he is to have left the reader hanging in curiosity forever!

Selfish or no, Murakami does give us various points to ponder over- human nature, our superstitions​, our prejudices, our very existence. Such food-for-thought easily compensates for all the loose ends one could possibly find.